Browsing Posts tagged Gregor Blanco

News out of the Royals camp has Ned Yost refiguring his lineup and moving Melky Cabrera and Alex Gordon to the second and third spots respectively. I’m not thrilled with the Melk-Man hitting so high in the order – I don’t care how he was swinging the bat in Arizona. Still, I’ve opined plenty of times in this space that the Royals lack a true number two type of bat. (Along with myriad other deficiencies.) So as much as I’d like to work up outrage over Cabrera hitting second, it’s a helluva lot better than Jason Kendall. Besides, I’ll save it for when Cabrera is dragging down the Royals offense.

I’m a little more perturbed that Yost has pushed Gordon to the third spot, mainly for the fact that this shifts Billy Butler to the cleanup position. I’m of the school where you don’t screw with two players at once when one of them has established a comfort zone. Butler profiles as a number three hitter. He just does. He’s not a cleanup hitter by any stretch of the imagination. That could be Kila Ka’aihue based on past performance in Omaha. Why not shift Gordon to the fifth spot and leave your three and four alone? Especially when you’re dealing with a guy like Gordon who hasn’t exactly done anything in his entire career to warrant such a move. Hey, if he’s hitting the snot out of the ball on May 1, then go ahead and make the move. Right now, it feels a little premature.

Here’s your Opening Day lineup:

Aviles
Cabrera
Gordon
Butler
Ka’aihue
Francoeur
Escobar
Treanor
Getz

I put Coach Treanor there because you just know the guy is the second coming of Kendall. He’s going to get the majority of the time behind the plate. Not 92% or whatever Kendall was getting last year prior to his injury, but I see him getting 60-70% of the innings.

Yes, Escobar had a fine spring, but if he can’t keep that going, the bottom third of that lineup has serious black hole potential.

So the bullpen is finally set with Kaneoka Texeria and Jeremy Jeffress the last two in place. They join the locks (Joakim Soria and Robinson Tejeda) the prospects (Aaron Crow and Tim Collins) and the whatevers (Sean O’Sullivan and Nate Adcock.) I honestly thought Luis Mendoza would make the team ahead of Jeffress. It’s nice that the Royals aren’t sticking with waiver retreads.

Plus, I’m glad they are using the bullpen as the first place to work in the young pitchers. Many thought Crow was drafted to be a starter, but his strength projects him as a reliever. Yeah, it’s not ideal, but he could transition into an above average set-up guy or even closer.

There’s been a bunch of internet chatter about the Royals keeping Jarrod Dyson and getting rid of Gregor Blanco. I’m surprised given that Dyson has options and would benefit from playing every day. With the Promised Two (Francoeur and Cabrera) along with the new number three hitter, Gordon, and the uber-backup in Mitch Maier, I don’t see where he’s going to get the at bats. This just feels like one of those classic Royal moments where they’re setting their player up for failure… He won’t play enough to get into any kind of rhythm, he’ll hit poorly, get shipped to Omaha and we won’t hear from him again. I just don’t get it. Plus, I think over the entire season Blanco would contribute more than Cabrera. This one is just a head-scratcher.

I hope the Royals are able to sneak Blanco through waivers, but I doubt that’s going to happen.

With T-minus one day to the Opener, it’s time for the annual exercise known as Calling Your Shot. Time to get on the record with your predictions for the upcoming 2011 season.

Since this season is all about transition in The Process, I thought it would be interesting to add a little spice in the form of a few over/unders based on totals from the 2010 season. It’s an interesting way to gauge expectations.

The excitement level around the Royals has risen considerably this off-season and it has very little to do with what people think the 2011 version of the team will do on the field. In fact, the level of anticipation has grown despite what the record of this year’s Royals is likely to be.

The trade of the team’s ace pitcher, Zack Greinke, actually increased the level of interest – at least in the blogging corner of Kansas City fandom. It was seen as a final announcement that The Process is really, finally here. All of that could be gone if we reach July 15th and Lorenzo Cain is still in Omaha, Alcides Escobar is hitting .221 and Jeremy Jeffress has issued more walks than strikeouts, but for now color us all eager for the season to begin.

The Process will likely be immediately evident in the bullpen where Jeffress, Tim Collins and possibly a Louis Coleman, Blaine Hardy or others might well break camp with the big league team. It will quickly have an impact on the infield as well with Escobar already at shortstop and Mike Moustakas due to take over third base sooner than later (not to mention the extension of Billy Butler’s contract). There is also an excellent chance that sometime during 2011 we will see some of the highly valued young arms make their way into the big league rotation.

With the exception of Lorenzo Cain, however, The Process brings little to the table in 2011 when it comes to the outfield. It is likely the Royals will filter, sift and flat out hope their way through six players who, excepting Cain, might not figure in any of the club’s long-term plan.

The roster offers a cluttered group of guys who are trying to rebound, trying to prove themselves or simply indistinguishable from the next player. One can look at an outfield of Gordon, Cabrera and Francouer and hope that maybe they all ‘get it’, but a logical (or even a Facebook level of logic) well remind you that if just one of those guys becomes a solid above average producer the Royals should consider themselves lucky.

Let’s take a look at the players and try to sort it all out.

Jeff Francouer – Age 27, Bats – Right

Career Line – .268/.310/.425, OPS+ 91, Total WAR: 8.0 (6 seasons)

Best Season – 2005

Worst Season – 2008

The one thing we know for sure about the 2011 Kansas City Royals’ outfield is that Jeff Francouer will be the everyday rightfielder: Dayton Moore promised him as much when Francouer signed. One thing you can say about Jeff is that he will play everyday, or at least as often as a manager can stand to write his name on the lineup card. From 2006 through 2009, Francouer missed a grand total of 12 games. His slugging percentage has been in decline since his rookie season and it is a little hard to see Kaufmann Stadium helping that. Perhaps the best case scenario is for Jeff to get some good luck – as he did in his 15 games with Texas last year or his first stint with the Mets – and post good numbers due to an inflated batting average and get traded during the season. For now, if he can match his career line and play good defense, he won’t be the worst player in the league. We know that the Royals are going to give him every chance.

Alex Gordon – Age 26, Bats – Left

Career line – .244/.328/.405, OPS+ 95, Total WAR: 4.4 (4 seasons)

Best Season – 2008

Worst Season – 2010

There remains this faint thought through the Internet that Gordon will be traded before Opening Day – nothing concrete, but enough to make one wonder if it might happen. My gut tells me the Royals, while frustrated, are not ‘Angel Berroa frustrated’ yet and that Gordon will get one last chance to prove he belongs. Depending on what happens with Melky Cabrera, the team might jerk Alex around in some sort of queer platoon arrangement (which would be a mistake), but they might just put him in left and leave him alone. For his part, Gordon still remains the most likely Royal this side of Billy Butler to post an on-base percentage above .350 and displayed some encouraging signs that he could be a solid to good defender in leftfield.

Melky Cabrera – Age 26, Bats – Both

Career line – .267/.328/.379, OPS+ 85, Total War: 2.6 (5 seasons)

Best season – 2006

Worst season – 2008

Yes, Melky actually was worse in 2008 than in 2010 – albeit not by much. He played a statistically pretty decent centerfield for the Yankees in 2008 and 2009, but a pretty awful defensive centerfield in 2007 and 2010. Dayton Moore has all but said that had he known that the Royals would be getting Lorenzo Cain in a trade he probably would not have signed Cabrera. That’s all fine and good, but there are a lot of us who think Moore shouldn’t have been after Cabrera regardless. Since 2006, Melky has not given anyone any real reason to think he will ever get back to that year’s line of .280/.360/.391. While I can envision a reality where the Royals catch lightning in a bottle with Francouer, I tend to believe that Melky’s bottle is broken. That might not keep him from being the club’s everyday centerfielder to start the season.

Lorenzo Cain – Age 25, Bats – Right

Career line – .306/.348/.415, OPS+ 107, WAR: 1.2

Minor league career line – .291/.366/.416

Lorenzo Cain has the inside track on being my new favorite Royal (that’s not necessarily a good thing, mind you). He brings good speed (124 steals, 35 caught stealing in the minors) and potentially well above average defense in center. Some scouts label his defense and parts of his entire game as still ‘raw’ as Cain really did not play much baseball before high school. Others will point to his high BABIP, but Cain has posted supposed ‘lucky’ BABIP numbers with regularity, so we might just have to start believing them. If not for the presence of Cabrera, I have no doubt that Cain would be the centerfielder on Opening Day and likely batting lead-off. As it is, I can see him starting off in Omaha or, worse, playing three times a week in the majors. Hey, if Ned Yost wants to sit Gordon once a week against a tough lefty and Francouer once a week against a tough righthander and Cain once a week just because, that would seem to be enough playing time for Melky Cabrera, but this is the Royals and that sentence just seemed to make sense, so….

Gregor Blanco – Age 27, Bats – Left

Career line – .258/.358/.324, OPS+ 85, Total WAR: 1.9 (2 1/2 seasons)

Best season – 2010

Worst season – 2009

Blanco is solid average in centerfield, with good speed on the bases and some decent on-base skills, but little power. If Alex Gordon was a star and Jeff Francouer the same guy he was at age twenty-one, Blanco would fit just fine in center and batting 8th or 9th. As it is, like Mitch Maier, he is a touch above replacement level, but not enough so to get anyone excited about whether he makes the team or not.

Mitch Maier, Age 28, Bats – Left

Career line – .256/.330/.347, OPS+ 84, Total WAR: 0.7 (2 1/2 seasons)

Best season – 2010

Worst season – 2009

Look at Mitch Maier’s numbers and then at those of Melky Cabrera and tell me why the Royals felt it necessary to sign Cabrera (even if it was for a modest amount). Like Blanco, Maier has some on-base ability, but he addsa a little bit of pop while not offering the speed of his counterpart. The feeling is that Maier’s days are numbered in the organization.

Jarrod Dyson, Age 26, Bats – Left

Career line – .211/.286/.404, OPS+ 87, WAR: 0.6

Minor league career line – .278/.344/.343

Dyson IS exciting, but not necessarily for what he might become as an overall ballplayer. He is blazing fast, with more power than Joey Gathright (I know, tallest midget stuff) and a really good arm. Dyson had tremendous defensive metrics in centerfield, but in a sample size so small that it probably means nothing. During his cup of coffee last year, Jarrod was on base seventeen times (he homered once – go figure) and stole nine bases in ten attempts. He is intriguing mostly for his speed, but Dyson has some abilities beyond just being that ‘speed guy’. I don’t think he can hit enough in the majors to matter and while I thought it might be worthwhile to give him a shot over Blanco and Maier, I don’t believe he will see time in front of Cabrera nor deserve it in front of Cain.

The Royals are funny when it comes to players. They do not really believe in Maier or Blanco, but I can quite easily see them make moves this spring to not lose them. Specifically, starting Lorenzo Cain and Jarrod Dyson in Omaha (although I wonder where Dyson plays in Omaha if Cain is there as well).

Right now, I would say it is a 50-50 proposition as to whether Cain or Cabrera is the starting centerfielder. While little stock is given to spring training stats, Cain could win the job based on just that or he might win by default if Melky gets on Ned Yost’s bad side (a very real possibility given Cabrera’s rumored past ‘bad influence’ in the clubhouse).

Barring a somewhat shocking trade of Gordon, you can count on Alex, Francouer and Cabrera to be locks for the roster, with one of Blanco and Maier as well. Should Lorenzo Cain start off in Omaha, then the odd man out of the Blanco/Maier combination gets to live the major league life for a little longer.

So, here we are, some 1600 words into another column and we are going to end up where we have been so many times before: The Process could really use a breakout year from Alex Gordon.

Let’s take a look at the how the players who got the bulk of the time at center field hit when they manned that position.

There clearly was a lot of shuffling around in center this year. No single player got even half of the games at the position. Mitch Maier was as close to a “regular” at the position as there was in 2010. Gregor Blanco was acquired via trade, Rick Ankiel was injured and then traded and Jarrod Dyson was a late season call up. One of the things that jump out at me is the fact that Rick Ankiel only played center for 24 games in 2010. I complained so much about him, that it sure seemed like he was out there more than he was. Ankiel, was a somewhat effective hitter in center field though. His 117 sOPS+ is due mostly to a decent slugging percentage, but still if you can get that out of a center fielder regularly, I’d think you’d take it. Mitch Maier and Gregor Blanco seem to be guys destined as filler, players who manned the position when there weren’t any other options. They didn’t embarrass themselves or the club, but they weren’t something special.Defensively, and just judging by what I’ve seen, I think Jarrod Dyson has the most upside, Maier was the best in 2010 and he was followed by Blanco and Ankiel.

Let’s see how the unit stacked up against the rest of the American League.

This isn’t a particularly surprising chart. The Royals clearly were a sub-par offensive team in center field. Whether you prefer judging by wOBA or OPS, the rank can move up or down by a couple of slots, but it’s still nothing to get excited about. One category which the Royals center fielders seemed to excel was in walk rate. Their 9.1% rate was third in the American League (hey, it’s something).

2011 will be a very interesting year for the center field position. I imagine there will be a pretty steady rotation throughout the season with Jarrod Dyson possibly getting the bulk of the time if he can show a decent bat when he does get a chance. I’m not convinced that the long-term answer to the position will be on the roster in 2011, but Derrick Robinson, who could be a September call-up has the best chance.

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High school football kicked into gear this past weekend. With college and the NFL just around the corner, the amount of Royals’ talk in the Midwest will plummet to somewhere close to non-existent. That is a simple fact of life for a franchise that has enjoyed exactly one winning season – let’s clarify, even threatened one winning season – since the strike of 1994.

That said, it was nice to see Bruce Chen pick up the win yesterday in Cleveland and even nicer to see Blake Wood strike out the side (sign of things to come or just ‘one of those days’?) . In the grand scheme of things, however, I cannot honestly say that the Cleveland series captured much of my attention this weekend. What interest it did generate all was in regard to next season.

I touched on next year’s roster last week in (and probably in 75% of my columns since the trade deadline) and at that time established the following ‘known facts’ about the 2011 Royals:

Zack Greinke will be in the starting rotation.

Joakim Soria will be the closer.

Robinson Tejeda will be in the bullpen.

Jason Kendall will catch.

Billy Butler will either be the first baseman or designated hitter.

Yuniesky Betancourt will be the shortstop.

That is six spots filled for next year’s 25 man roster. I think the probability that the Royals pick up David DeJesus’ option for 2011 is somewhere north of 90%, so we can add him to the list and call it seven roster spots filled. Yesterday’s start, in all likelihood, made Bruce Chen player number eight.

Without question, if the season started today, Chen would be your day two starter. Hopefully by the time 2011 actually rolls around, Chen is somewhere down at day four or five, but he almost certainly will be in the rotation.

Now, we can and will speculate about the other positions, but no one has locked in a spot, yet. Frankly, when you look at all the other positions and the playing time being given, my money is that Gregor Blanco probably is closer to getting the nod for a 2011 Opening Day start than anyone else.

Since August 1st, Blanco has started 23 of 26 games in centerfield, leading off in the last 20 of those starts. He has gotten on base at least once in all but four games on his way to posting a .270/.347/.348 line. That is good for just a .695 OPS or 92 OPS+. Just for comparison sake (and to be a little snarky), Yuniesky Betancourt has an OPS+ of 91 and is the darling of, if not the casual fan, certainly the Royals’ PR department.

Prior to getting caught stealing and picked off yesterday, Blanco had shown some ability on the basepaths (9 steals) and good defense. I am not sure that Gregor is a premier defensive centerfielder, but he is certainly capable of covering the position. Perhaps most importantly to the Royals, Blanco is under team control and not eligible for arbitration until 2012.

Two years ago, Blanco played n 144 games for the Braves and posted a rather anemic line of .251/.366/.309 (OPS+82). He played very little in the majors in 2009, but was carrying an OPS+ of 107 in 66 plate appearances with Atlanta prior to being traded this summer. Combining both teams’ numbers, Blanco carries an OPS+ of 98 this season (.286/.365/.354).

Blanco’s competition, assuming no off-season acquisitions, for the centerfield job is Mitch Maier. Mitch is likely not eligible for arbitration until after next season as well. Over 366 plate appearances this year, Maier has an OPS+ of 95 (.256/.327/.384). He has shown more power this year than he did in a similar number of at-bats in 2009 when he went .243/.333/.331. For his career, Maier does not have all that great a platoon split, but struggles against left-handed starters (who doesn’t?).

The organization has spent a lot of energy the last three years acquiring speedy outfield types to make one believe they don’t really want to play Maier everyday anywhere. At best, the Royals view Maier as a fourth outfielder type who can competently fill in at all three spots and not embarrass himself at the plate. At this point, I don’t disagree with the club’s assessment.

After trying everyone named Anderson in an effort to find someone different than Maier (and DeJesus for that matter as well), only to end up with players inferior to Mitch, the Royals have at least managed to find a player in Blanco who is different from Maier and, at least, not any worse.

Given the state of the position within the organization – if you think Blanco is another Joey Gathright, what do you think AAA centerfielder Jarrod Dyson will be? – it almost has to be Blanco or Maier in center for at least the first half of 2011. Knowing that the current Royals’ regime is fascinated/obsessed with having a ‘true lead-off hitter’, it seems almost certain that Gregor Blanco is likely to occupy the same position and location in the batting order in 2011 as he has for most of this August.

If the Royals were just a player away from contention, I would advocate (and have in the past) going outside the organization for player to man centerfield. As it stands right now, however, they might best be served to stand pat in center with Blanco spelled by Maier.

It may not be very exciting and, frankly, it may not be very good, but you can pretty much make Gregor Blanco player number nine on your 2011 Kansas City Royals.

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While it has been and likely will remain tough to watch, I am delighted that the Royals are giving a number of players – you know, guys who might actually be around when this team is ready to contend – a chance to prove themselves the remainder of this season. It begs the question, with 48 games remaining to go: is this enough of a sample size to determine who can play and who cannot?

Given the almost certain intrusion of Willie Bloomquist into the lineup on a semi-regular basis, we can probably expect to see somewhere around 175 more plate appearances this season for Alex Gordon, Kila Ka’aihue, Mike Aviles, Chris Getz, Mitch Maier, Gregor Blanco and Wilson Betemit. Will that be enough to make decisions on these players that will not only effect 2011, but the seasons beyong that as well?

We can go way back in time and find examples of players that struggled early and became great. George Brett posted an anemic .646 OPS (82 OPS+) through his first 527 major league plate appearances before beginning his run to the Hall of Fame with a .308/.353/.456 1975 season. Through his first 483 plate appearances, Mike Schmidt had a dreadful career line of .197/.324/.367 before slugging .546 in 1974. However, those guys were Hall of Famers for godssake and comparisons to that type of talent is not only unfair, but probably not all that relevant, either.

Taking a step back, the career of Raul Ibanez was a five year – 581 plate appearance journey between Seattle, the bench and AAA, during which he posted an OPS+ of just 73. As we are all keenly aware, Ibanez came to Kansas City in 2001 at age twenty-nine, received regular playing time and has posted an OPS+ of 110 or above in nine of the last ten seasons.

Billy Butler took a little longer to get his footing in the majors. At age 21, he posted a nice partial season in 2007 (OPS+ 108), fell back in 2008 (.275/.324/.400, OPS+ 93) and was an uncertain commodity with 838 major league plate appearances entering last season. Of course, Billy was terrific in 2009 and actually has a better OPS+ this season.

A couple of other guys did not take so long to emerge as legitimate hitters. Paul Konerko had 247 pretty awful plate appearances (OPS+ 60) spread over two seasons at the start of his career. After a trade to Chicago, Konerko hit 24 home runs in 1999 and has been a fixture at first base for the Sox ever since.

Travis Hafner did not get his first major league at-bat until he was 25 and in 70 plate appearances that season posted an unimpressive line .242/.329/.387. The following year, he got off to an even worse start, posting a .195/.267/.378 line in his first 90 plate appearances. So, what would you have thought of Hafner after 160 plate appearances? Well, he came back in July of that second season and took off. The very next year, his first full major league season, Hafner led the league in OPS+.

We could spend all day pouring through Baseball Reference and analyzing who many plate appearances it took for guys who really have made it in the majors to show what kind of player they would become. There are other variables, too: time in the minors, drafted out of high school or college, where they hit in the order, how good the teams were that they played on….. Shockingly, the raw numbers do not tell the entire story! At any rate, using the very rudimentary research above, let’s look at this group of current Royals.

ALEX GORDON – The Royals have always seemed to be in hurry when it comes to Alex. They rushed him to the majors in 2007 after just one minor league season, they rushed him back into the lineup in 2009 after hip surgery and then shoved him down to the minors over service time/performance issues. They rushed him back from a broken thumb this year and then were in a hurry to decide that he couldn’t hit AND needed to change positions. All that said, how many remember/realize that in 2008, Gordon posted an OPS+ of 109 – enough above average to be considered ‘above average’?

Given that Gordon, despite an injury plagued-demotion riddled- position changing season and half since 2008, still boasts a career OPS+ of 97 (basically average) and will end this season with around 1,600 plate appearances, I will be inclined to believe that what the Royals see out of Alex these final forty-eight games is likely to be a true indicator of what they can expect in the future.

Wilson Betemit – Doesn’t it seem like Betemit is 35 years old or something? In reality, he will not turn 29 until November and will end this season with roughly the same amount of plate appearances as Gordon. Right now, Wilson is a dead average 100 OPS+ for his career. Betemit played in 143 games (for 2 teams) in 2006, which was his only real shot at an everyday job and posted, not surprisingly, an almost dead average 101 OPS+. Early on, he has hit a ton for the Royals, but is slowing cooling down. There is a touch of the ‘Ibanez factor’ in Wilson’s career to date, so a good 48 games down the stretch might make me lean towards seeing if the Royals could catch lightning, or more accurately Ibanez 2.0, in a bottle in 2011.

Mike Aviles – If a player’s first 400 or so plate appearances is not the true indicator of a player’s future, then Mike still has plenty to prove. He was in the discussion for Rookie of the Year in 2008 when he posted an OPS+ of 121 and the highest WAR of any Royal since Beltran over 441 plate appearances. 2009 was lost to injury and Mike has not been the same player in 2010 with an OPS+ of just 89. Depending on how much Ned Yost decides to play him, Aviles will end the year with around 1,000 plate appearances. Although they did it at different ages and are far different players, Aviles first 900 plate appearances compare somewhat to Billy Butler’s. He is a tough one to figure at this point as to whether we will reach October and know what to think of Mike Aviles.

Chris Getz – I was all for the Teahen-Getz trade, so seeing him in the lineup virtually everyday is okay from here on out. By the end of the year, Chris will have close to 800 plate appearances and currently sports a career OPS+ of 69. The big difference between the 800 plate appearances of Getz and the 800 of Butler and Aviles is that Chris really has not had a good stretch of performance in there – it has really been a pretty consistent run (his July numbers were identical to that posted last season). If he starts hitting and getting on-base, I would be inclined to believe in Getz. If he doesn’t, I might believe that, too.

Mitch Maier – Mitch has a career OPS+ of 84, but a 2010 mark of 98, which doesn’t surprise me. He is an average player, when given a chance to perform everyday, but has not shown much to make me think he will ever be more than that. Maier will end 2010 with 900 or so plate appearances and, right or wrong, will likely be judged by what he does between now and the end of the season. Again, he does not have that magical season on his resume like Aviles or the giant minor league resume that Butler came to the majors with, so his rope is shorter.

Gregor Blanco – I loved Willie Wilson back in the day and apparently so did Dayton Moore. He has traded for virtually every player who is fast and plays centerfield and drafted about ten more. Blanco is another in that mold. Like many of the other players in our discussion, he will end the year somewhere between 800 and 900 career plate appearances. He got an everyday shot with Atlanta in 2008 and posted a .251/.366/.309 line, but has tread water ever since. I’m not sure that the Royals will have a great read on Blanco by the end of the year and they probably don’t need to have one, either. He will be cheap and under team control and blocking no one in centerfield. Heck, if Gordon can hit and DeJesus returns healthy, there would be worse outfields than Gordon-Blanco/Maier-DeJesus.

Kila Ka’aihue – Next to Alex Gordon, here’s the guy you really wanted to talk about, right? Right now, Kila is struggling mightily, but then so did Konerko and Hafner (you didn’t think I pulled those two guys out of coincidence, did you?). Currently 54 plate appearances into his career – roughly the same point at which the Royals gave up on Matt Diaz once upon a time – Kila will end up with right at 200 by the end of the season. To be honest, I have thought all along that a couple months of regular duty was enough to tell what you had in a player, but in writing this column my mind has changed some.

Certainly it is a stretch to call Ka’aihue the next Konerko or Hafner, but would you want to be the teams that gave up on those guys after a similar stretch of time? Let’s make this a little more timely and note that Jose Guillen’s OPS+ after 1,953 plate appearances was jsut 82. It was only at age 27, that Jose went on to be post well above average numbers in four of his next five seasons. Sadly, that string ended when he signed his three year deal with the Royals, but we don’t need to discuss that again, do we?

So, in the end, I am not sure we have proven anything this morning, other than deciding at what point in time you have ‘seen enough’ of a given player is hardly an exact science. Do you believe what you see in the next 48 games is what you will get in the future?